Former teammates Iwakuma, Tanaka set to face off

Summary of 8 articles · Updated Jun 13, 2014

Iwakuma and Tanaka were teammates with the Rakuten Golden Eagles from 2007-11 during Iwakuma's last five years in Japan. Tanaka now is set to start Wednesday. Iwakuma, much less celebrated, took a much different road to the major leagues from the one take… (more)n by Tanaka, who signed a $155 million, seven-year deal with the Yankees in the off-season. A lot of eyes will be on Safeco Field on Tuesday night when Yankees rookie sensation Masahiro Tanaka faces off against Mariners All-Star right-hander Hisashi Iwakuma, a former Japanese teammate. “He keeps this up, he’s going to have one of the greatest first years in baseball of any pitcher who ever played this game,” Teixeira said of Tanaka. “I’d love to see it.” Robinson Cano, a former Yankee, did not let the opportunity to make an impact against his old team pass, hitting a two-run homer in the ninth off Tanaka, Cano’s third home run of the season and first at Safeco Field. Just three of the previous 134 Rookies of the Year made their major league debut in or after June, but this year's National League rookie field is so weak that this year's winner could very easily become the fourth.